Badenoch’s answer, in effect, is that her predecessors as Tory leader largely gave up on Thatcherism and accepted the modern media view that there’s no problem, actual or perceived, that government shouldn’t have a go at trying to solve. They also, too often, wanted to be nice, as people do, partly in order to shed the Tories’ reputation as the “nasty party,” a phrase coined by Theresa May in 2002 when she was party chair.









